Triple-Double From Wall Propels Wiz past Sixers, 106-94.

John Wall has come close several times this year but tonight, he finally got his first triple-double of the season with 18 points, 10 assists, and 13 rebounds. Marcin Gortat keeps rolling along as the Polish Hammer went for 21 points and 13 rebounds. And Bradley Beal had a game-high 22 points in his return back to the starting lineup.

The Wizards started the game on a 17-6 run and never relinquished the lead tonight. Everything was working in the first quarter as the Wizards shot 64 percent from the field including an off-balance shot from Gary Neal as time expired.

The Wizards 20 point lead dwindled down to 11 as the bench wasn’t able to provide much production tonight outside of Neal. The Wizards were able to maintain a double-digit lead for almost the entirety of the first half as they were up 60-47 at half.

The beginning of the third quarter was picture perfect. Dudley was hitting shots, Porter was hitting shots, and Gortat was finishing at the hole as the Wiz stretched the lead out to 25, 76-51.

As the Sixers have done against many teams, they went on a run to make a huge dent in the Wizards’ lead. Ish Smith scored 14 points in the quarter for the Sixers as they were able to take advantage of 10 Wizards’ turnovers in the quarter. Nik Stauskas hit a three late in the quarter and all of a sudden the Sixers were down just 10, 82-72.

After an ugly start to the fourth quarter from both teams, John Wall found Bradley Beal for an alley-oop dunk to notch his first triple-double since 2014.

The Wizards would coast to a 106-94 victory as the Sixers wouldn’t get closer than within nine points.

A long time coming: John Wall has been very close to a triple-double many times this season. In all of those instances, he was short due to rebounds. Tonight, we were waiting for Wall to snag that elusive 10th assist which he did on an alley-oop to Beal midway through the fourth quarter. You have to feel happy for the Wall-Star who notched his first triple-double of the season on a night he was presented with his All-Star jersey.

Turnovers: The Wizards only committed 13 turnovers for the game but 10 of those came in the third quarter. Those 10 turnovers allowed the Sixers to cut the Wizards 25-point lead down to nine. There was a stretch where the Wizards’ turned the ball over on four straight possessions. If the team doesn’t lose focus for half of the third quarter, we’re talking about a 20+ point blowout instead.

Beal returns to the starting lineup: Bradley Beal replaced Garrett Temple in the starting lineup tonight and looked terrific. Beal had a game-high 22 points on 10-16 shooting. Although he missed both of his three-point attempts, he was aggressive in attacking the hole and I don’t recall him taking any long twos tonight. Additionally, Beal is finding himself with the ball in his hands more and more so the fact that he only had one turnover tonight is also a good sign.

Overall, a good win for the Wiz in a game they should have won. Very key game coming up tomorrow night in Charlotte.